


Not so Straight

by romanoffsdanvers



Category: Avengers (Comics), Black Widow (Comics), JessNat, Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Secret Avengers, Spider-Woman (Comic), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:14:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28325139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/romanoffsdanvers/pseuds/romanoffsdanvers
Summary: After the events of Secret Avengers (2014), the team hosts a get-together celebration for . . . surviving. Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman) reunites with Natasha Romanov (Black Widow) after the latter was presumed dead.
Relationships: Jessica Drew & Natasha Romanov, Jessica Drew/Natasha Romanov
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Not so Straight

It had been a couple days since the Secret Avengers (not so secret anymore) had defeated their latest foe, and as a celebration of sorts, Maria Hill had organized a get-together for them all, just a day before she was set to take a vacation/leave from S.H.I.E.L.D. after everything that had happened. Stepping into the Director's apartment, Jessica Drew looked around. While other members had had a worse experience than she did, she was kidnapped, and her life was spared by a creepy evil guy who seemed to have a crush on her, so she was still wary. And tired. And caught up in her own thoughts.

You see, Jessica and Natasha Romanov had gone on a mission. Turns out - the mission had been a set-up. Natasha had saved Jessica and got herself sucked through a black hole. The great agent and spy had been presumed dead, and Jessica couldn't stop thinking about it. If she had been a little quicker, a little smarter, could she have saved her friend? Maria Hill said that the redhead was presumed dead so _casually_ , and it tugged at Jessica's heart strings. It felt like, in the midst of the craziness with M.O.D.O.K., that she was the only one who cared. That Natasha Romanov was dead, and everyone was more focussed on something else than to think about a funeral, or the possibility that she was alive, all except for Jessica whose mind had been captivated by it.

So when Jessica saw that she was alive, she had never felt more relieved. The brunette couldn't explain it - but the woman's survival, the fact that she was okay, warmed her heart in a way that terrified her. Because from everything that Jessica knew being a basic human being, she was beginning to have a crush . . . and superheroes don't 'crush' on other superheroes. 

She had done her best not to immediately look for Natasha the moment Maria had opened the door. Instead, she smiled and made small talk, and looked around the room to see who was there. 

Fury and Coulson were chatting over glasses of wine . . . and there was Natasha and Clint. Caught up in their conversation on the couch. Jessica ignored the way her heart fluttered when she saw the Russian, and continued to chat with Maria. However she found her mind wavering from the conversation, and as much as she tried to fight it, her thoughts succumbed to Natasha. 

How glad she was that Romanov was okay. How happy she was to see her there. How much she loathed seeing Natasha laugh with Clint (who they had both dated). How pretty Natasha looked in that black dress. Suddenly, Jessica realized, she felt under-dressed. How the men wore suits and the women wore dresses. Jessica, too, wore a red dress, but it felt significantly less-fashionable than everyone else's choice of wear. 

Finally, Jessica forced herself to pay attention to her conversation with Maria. She wasn't going to think about Natasha. She was going to have a talk with her Director and she was going to be polite. 

"Jessica!" 

And not even a couple minutes after her promise, Spider-Woman was distracted again, as she identified the voice calling her as Black Widow. 

Both of them looked over to see Natasha smiling big and walking over. 

"Hey, Romanov," Jessica greeted, unable to hide her her blush as she was pulled into a hug. She let herself enjoy it, for just a moment, before pulling away. 

"We have a lot of catching up to do," Natasha noted, and Jessica nodded. As Clint began to engage Maria in a conversation, Natasha gripped Jessica's arm and led her further into the apartment, to the kitchen. 

Jessica closed her eyes for the briefest of moments, enjoying the silence compared to the chatter of voices mixed together. When she opened them, Natasha was still smiling, so Jessica smiled back. 

She leaned against the kitchen counter and thought for a moment. "You were presumed dead," Jessica finally said, and couldn't stop herself from choking on her words. It was the first time she had said it out-loud and, despite it no longer being true, it still pained her. 

"Yep, I was," Natasha agreed. She drummed her fingers on the counter and suddenly Jessica felt pressured to clear it up. She didn't want her newfound friend to think that everyone had just . . . accepted her death. They hadn't. She hadn't. 

"I talked with Hill about going after you or trying to get you back . . . I was told that we would do it after dealing with M.O.D.O.K. and honestly, I almost lost it. I was ready to try and get to you on my own, because you saved my life - should not have done that, by the way - and the thought of you dead was unacceptable," Jessica clarified, speaking the truth. 

There was a couple of moments of silence, because Natasha's tapping had ceased, until her voice bounced off the walls again. "Why didn't you?" It was a simple, innocent question. No judgement, no accusation hinted at all. So it was Jessica's own mind that leapt with it and overthought, and she felt pressured once more. 

She sighed. "You," Jessica admitted, not meeting the redhead's eyes as they flickered up with interest. She continued. "Your voice came in my head and I knew what you'd say: you'd tell me to take care of M.O.D.O.K. first. As much as my worries wanted to ignore it, I realized I didn't have the clearance level to access any sort of resources that would help me get to you."

Natasha let out a chuckle. "I would say that," she confirmed. "What happened with you while I was gone?" 

"Tried to help Hill with M.O.D.O.K. . . . Then, when she got captured, I tried to save her but got captured as well. I was put in a cell, my life 'spared' because one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s former prisoners had a creepy crush on me, but I managed to break out just as Coulson and Fury came to get me," she answered. Because Jessica had focussed on the floor, she missed Natasha's worried gaze (when she said she was captured) morph into a disgusted one (creepy crush), and then finally settle on proud (when she escaped on her own). 

There was some silence again. 

"I'm really, _really_ glad that you're okay," Jessica said, finally looking up at her. She offered an awkward smile. 

"Yeah?" Natasha said, returning with a confident smile. "You're not the only one who worried, though. I was worried about the whole team . . . especially you. I know that you can take care of yourself and that you're a badass, but . . . well when we went on that mission, at the beginning, I nearly blew it trying to make a decision. I couldn't decide whether or not to send you out because I knew you could do it . . . I just didn't want you getting hurt. So I realized something in space . . . " 

She trailed off and took a step towards Jessica. 

"I realized that maybe I'm not so straight after-all," Natasha finished. 

Jessica bit back her gasp, the words putting her in the feeling of a trance. Her mind was racing, she felt like she would explode . . .Wow. 

How the hell was Natasha Romanov so confident? 

"Really? Cause I was realizing the same thing," Jessica said, her awkward smile turning into a grin.


End file.
